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Politics / Re: Insecurity: Buhari, Osinbajo, Service Chiefs, Others In Crucial Meeting by dgmegas(m): 3:09pm On Aug 04, 2020
Does dead man discuss the issues of the living? Can Buhari provide solution to insecurities in Nigeria? I rest my case

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Politics / Re: Umahi Set To Defect To APC Before May 29 – Sen Ogbuoji by dgmegas(m): 9:54pm On Mar 13, 2019
Osagyefo98:
This abakiliki non igbo trying to make himself relevant.......

Please can FG comfortably carve ebonyi to north let's have peace.....in east. For once.

These guys are constituting a lot of nuisance in east and above all they are fulanis not igbo....

you and your entire generations are idiot

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Sports / Re: I Can't Keep Winning Alone...profit Every Week by dgmegas(m): 10:45pm On Feb 04, 2019
08140331635
Nairaland / General / The Mace: A Weapon Of Power by dgmegas(m): 9:19am On Aug 23, 2015
IN the last 16 years since Nigeria returned to civil rule, the legislative arm of government at the state and federal levels has always remained in the news for different reasons. One of such reasons is the power struggle and supremacy battle among members of the arm of government, who are considered as peers of equal standing before the law, with anyone elected or selected as leader being widely considered as a primus inter pares or first among equals.
In these ceaseless struggle for the control of the legislative arm, the mace, a staff with the coat of arms at its head, has always been a recurring decimal, with any group bent on changing the leadership of the arm always angling to first gain hold of the mace, which has come to be known as the symbol of authority in the second estate of the realm.
For observers and anyone that is conscious of the political environment, the mace is an authority in itself, jealously guarded and serving as the physical symbol of the legislative arm’s official performance of its duties of lawmaking, thus the perpetual struggle for its control and its heralding the coming in and going out of the Senate President or Speaker at any plenary session.
To underscore its importance, lawmakers are always quick to gun for the mace once there is a highly contentious situation on the floor of the legislative chambers, making those in possession of this symbol of the presiding officer’s authority to confer on themselves an advantage over the direction of the issue in question. The history of Nigeria’s democracy is replete with instances of mace-grabbing by hot-blooded elected representatives either wanting to bring legislative proceeding to an abrupt end or insisting that such proceeding must get to its conclusion in spite of stiff opposition from others.
However, a recent position by the popular human rights activist and Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Femi Falana, that the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria has no provision for the mace as a symbol of authority in the National Assembly, has kick-started a fresh discourse about how and why the mace has come to attract the kind of respect it commands in the parliamentary processes and procedures.
Falana, who said this while moderating a community forum interactive session for vice chancellor aspirants at the University of Ibadan, few weeks ago, noted that the position became imperative following the crisis in the House of Representatives over the control of the mace.
“Mind you, I think there are law professors here, in the entire constitution of Nigeria, there are 320 sections, nowhere is mace mentioned. It’s part of the old parliamentary system. What the constitution says is that House of Representatives shall meet or convene once it forms a quorum.
“You cannot go to court and say because there was no mace, the House of Representatives or Senate is illegally constituted,” Falana said.
In spite of its lack of explicit constitutional role though, the mace occupies a prominent position in most democracies. The online encyclopedia, Wikipedia, describes a ceremonial mace as a highly ornamented staff of metal or wood, carried before a sovereign or other high official in civic ceremonies by a mace-bearer, intended to represent the official’s authority. It goes further to inform that the mace, as used today, derives from the original mace used as a weapon. Perhaps, this history of mace as originally a weapon has not been lost in many members of parliaments who find it handy to attack their opponents particularly when angered and seek to challenge the authority of the presiding officer.
Mace-grabbing and its use as an assault weapon in Nigeria dates back to the first republic when Mr. Ebubedike representing Badagry East in the Western Nigerian parliament seized it as fight broke out among members. It became the prime instrument of attack during the factional melee where chairs and other dangerous instruments were freely deployed. The late Senate President, Chuba Okadigbo, once boasted that he took the Senate’s mace to his village, Ogbunike, where he claimed that a seven-foot python was protecting it from his disgruntled colleagues who wanted to impeach him.
More recently, members of the Rivers State House of Assembly demonstrated how the mace could be used to devastating effect. In July 2013, pandemonium broke out inside the main chamber of the House as some of the 27 lawmakers loyal to the Governor of Rivers State, Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi and the five lawmakers loyal to the Minister of State for Education, Nyesom Wike, engaged themselves in a free for all over the leadership of the House.  The five lawmakers supporting Wike had declared that they had impeached the House Speaker, Otelemabama Amachree, but the majority members loyal to Amaechi responded with one using the mace as a weapon and when all was said and done, three lawmakers were seriously injured and had to be rushed to the hospital.
It would appear that the history of the mace does make it attractive to warring members of parliaments to use in their fights. Wikipedia also recalls that the earliest ceremonial maces were indeed practical weapons intended to protect the king’s person, borne by the Sergeants-at-Arms, a royal bodyguard established in France by Philip II, and in England probably by Richard I. But by the 14th century, these sergeants’ maces had started to become increasingly decorative, encased in precious metals. “The mace as a real weapon went out of use with the disappearance of heavy armor.”
In the British Parliament, ceremonial maces represent the authority of the Sovereign, currently Queen Elizabeth II and the Parliament cannot lawfully meet without the mace, representing royal authority, present in their Chambers. In the United States, when the House of Representatives is in session, the mace stands to the right of the chair of the Speaker of the House. When the House is meeting as the Committee of the Whole, the mace is moved to a pedestal next to the desk of the Sergeant at Arms. This immediately indicates to members entering the chamber that the House is in session or in committee.
Like in various legislative chambers in Nigeria, there have been violent incidents involving the mace in the parliaments of other countries, some of which have more advanced traditions of democracy. Despite the abuse it has been subjected to over time, it has however continued to play its role as the symbol of authority of the Nigeria legislatures.
Commenting, a lawyer and former Deputy Speaker in Osun State between 1992 and 1993, Honourable Niyi Owolade, noted that the mace is the parliament’s symbol of authority, noting that the historical development of the parliament has made the mace so important that there is nowhere in the world that a parliament would sit without that symbol of authority.
He stated that the mace dated back to the medieval ages, stating that without the mace the parliament could have an informal session where the speaker or senate president would be chairman and other members will just sit. “But if the House or Senate wants to sit to make laws, something must show that it is in session and that thing is the mace. It has always been that way from time immemorial,” Owolade said.
Owolade disagreed with Falana’s position, noting that though the Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN) was entitled to his opinion, the fact that it is not any section of the constitution that a mace should be present before a legislative decision is binding does not mean that the mace can be jettisoned.
“It is not everything that can be in the constitution; there is what we call convention. The constitution is not the only thing that makes up the rules and laws of any country; you have what you call convention. It is a parliamentary convention that if you don’t have the mace, you cannot sit officially. If that is not the case, some bunch of people can just gather themselves; sit somewhere and say they have made laws. You cannot sit authoritatively without the mace; that is why the mace is jealously kept. If you go to any parliament, the mace is always jealously guarded by the Sergeant-at-Arms; he carries it ahead of the speaker/senate president when he is coming to sit and immediately after the sitting, he takes it out ahead of him. The legislative arm cannot have any official sitting without the mace,” he said.
Hon. Fatai Moruf, a House of Representatives member from Lagos State in the 7th Session of the National Assembly, asserts that the Speaker of the House cannot attempt to preside over the assembly unless the mace is in place. “It is the symbol of his authority. If it is not there, the Speaker cannot sit. I think it is the law from the outset. But when we are in Committee of the Whole, we lower it because the Speaker is not referred to as the Speaker at that time but the Chairman.”
Morouf blames the tendency of members to seize the mace on the fact that wherever it is taken, the Speaker can preside over a session of the assembly there. “The Speaker can sit anywhere as long as the mace is present. That’s why it in the custody of the Speaker,” he told Sunday Tribune.
Hon Etim Bassey, also a former member of the House of Representatives from Akwa Ibom State, concurred with him and added that “for any resolution to be taken in the legislature, the mace must be present.” if it is not there, he said, “it is like a president traveling but without his protocol or diplomatic immunity with him. If you take out the mace from the legislative session, it becomes like just any other social or cultural meeting. “
A former Majority Leader of the Oyo State House of Assembly, Honourable Michael Okunlade noted that while he could not challenge Falana’s position, he has never heard any legislator taking that line of thought, maintaining that Falana has raised a poser that should be looked into. He, however, stated that it is a parliamentary convention that cannot be faulted, as it is the custom the world over.
Okunlade, who was one of the G7 lawmakers who moved against the speaker of the House and ended up in former Governor Adebayo Alao-Akala’s bad books, when asked how important the group considered the mace in its struggle to unseat the speaker, said the group believed that the first thing that must be done was to have the mace, because it was the symbol of authority

source : www.tribuneonlineng.com/mace-weapon-power
Nairaland / General / APC Wins Jigawa Elections by dgmegas(m): 10:21am On Mar 30, 2015
ALL Progressive Congress (APC) has won all the three Senatorial seats contested in last Saturday general election in Jigawa state.

The APC’s presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari won the presidential election in the state.



Declaring the presidential election result, the returning officer – Professor James Ayatsa – who is the Vice Chancellor of Federal University Katsina, announced that General Buhari scored 885, 988 while President Goodluck Jonathan scored 143, 904 votes.

Source:http://thenationonlineng.net/new/apc-wins-election-in-jigawa/
Politics / Re: Live Photos From Apc's Rally In Ebonyi by dgmegas(m): 5:17am On Jan 10, 2015
Thank God It is also happening in my own state(ebonyi state) we long over due needed a change in this place because (PDP, GEJ and ELECHI has taken us 10years backward. There is no word to describe the terrible things this GEJ,ELECHI and PDP did to this state and we will correct it come FEB 14 2015, will we vote change, not continuity sentiment apart. EBONYI needs a CHANGE and we know that BUHARI is that change. Our own has disappointed us. We say no to continuity! We say no to PDP!! We say no to GEJ.

1 Like

Politics / Re: Breaking News:General Buhari To Be Disqualified In Few Days Time[A MUST READ] by dgmegas(m): 11:17am On Jan 04, 2015
Disqualify who? Buhari? I think that is a joke in it's highest order. Anyway, u said it's a rumor after all anybody can say anything. Tell me if this is not clueless GEJ and pdp mischievousness how can somebody of buhari's caliber rose through all cadres of the military to become the head of state of this country and even contested on all three previous elections, will now not have certificate this time. My question now is "what has he being using? Please, fellow Nigeria, think well and let give this man (buhari) a chance. No matter what he is still a citizen of this country and I believe he can move this nation forward. He did it before. As for me I will vote buhari.

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Politics / Re: Shocking Security Report : BUHARI Has A Terminal Disease- DAILY POST by dgmegas(m): 8:07pm On Dec 30, 2014
Kai! Pdp & gej at it again, always looking 4 ways to discredit this man. Oh! If men were God. To u my general, my prayer for is, may the good will of the lord be fulfilled in ur life even in this quest. Amen

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Politics / Re: The Bricklayer’s Breakdown Of Nigeria’s Proposed 2015 Budget by dgmegas(m): 8:45am On Dec 30, 2014
Our domestic debt
has risen from N4.55trillion in
2010 to N7.65trillion as at
September 2014…





Under clueless jona watch, our future is sold into financial slavery to debt.

Who is more wicked than this GEJ.
Politics / Re: The Bricklayer’s Breakdown Of Nigeria’s Proposed 2015 Budget by dgmegas(m): 8:30am On Dec 30, 2014
This country don suffer under the watch of the clueless GEJ. May God save us 4rm the doom ahead. Vote 4 change! vote APC!! Vote GMB!!!
Religion / Re: Why Did It Take 2,000 Years For The Gospel To Reach Nigeria? by dgmegas(m): 1:14pm On Dec 28, 2014
Ask God?
Crime / Re: Policeman Battered By Naval Officer Goes Blind (pictured) by dgmegas(m): 10:46pm On Dec 27, 2014
Can the victim reach me? (07068562818) I can help
Celebrities / Re: Photos: Popular Nigerian Gay Activist, Bisi Alimi Shows Off His New Man. by dgmegas(m): 8:07am On Dec 25, 2014
Devil @ work in their lives. May d lord save them and their soul 4rm hell.

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Agriculture / Re: Catfish Farming Basics by dgmegas(m): 4:17pm On Feb 03, 2012
@poster, what a good heart you have for the good pple of this country to have intiatated this thread in the first place in order to assist some of us who have interest in this sector, unlike most of such thread that some folks uses to sale their copy and paste info for their greediness. I just pray that you purpose is realized here. Keep up the good work and I trust that all the good minded pple will come up to support you for the benefit of all. God bless!
Literature / Re: Free Ebook On How To Profitable Adsense Biz by dgmegas(m): 10:04am On Dec 03, 2011
Can u contact me on dis number 07054877534
Business / Re: Fish Farming Business by dgmegas(m): 6:03pm On Nov 30, 2011
please all, am based in Abuja and i intend going into catfish farming but do not know a good farm here in Abuja where i could get good stocks of juvenile to start up my catfish business. any body that has an idea should please contact me through these phone numbers 07054877534 or 07038951189 or d_megasexpress@yahoo.com. i stay in karu site. thank you all.
Agriculture / Re: Plastic Tanks For Catfish Farming by dgmegas(m): 5:42pm On Nov 30, 2011
please all, am based in Abuja and i intend going into catfish farming but do not know a good farm here in Abuja where i could get good stocks of juvenile to start up my catfish business. any body that has an idea should please contact me through these phone numbers 07054877534 or 07038951189 or d_megasexpress@yahoo.com. i stay in karu site. thank you all.
Nairaland / General / Re: Comandclem Patentees Assembly by dgmegas(m): 3:11am On Nov 28, 2011
@fyneguy, let God bless the whom that gave birth to you. @CCNL a very big thank you to you. Because, this is another big step you have taken. And for our king, I salute your courage and let God keep on leading you till the end.

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